Like last year and the year before, after I thought about my word and my plans for 2013, I began to think more and more about what the word and the priorities meant. Since I tend to be self-reflective during this time of year, this is very long and mostly for my benefit (I like having a record of my plans and my thoughts) so feel free to skip. I won’t be offended.

By the way, this is influenced by Chris’s annual review article. I’ve read this before and have always liked the idea. I’m a technical person at heart and all these specific goals, measurable steps, etc. are right up my alley. Since I have my list of 9 priorities this year, I thought it would be a good exercise to see if I could come up with 3-5 goals for each.

I will post about each of the projects I mention over the next week. I’ll then come back and link them here but I promise it’s all coming in the first week of the year.

One of my goals this year is to specifically do less. I know this might not seem so from the list, but I am focusing on what I know will feed my soul but no more so I can also rest and breathe more since I know I have a big commitment this year as I work towards getting my coaching certification.

So here we go:

Goals for Each Priority

Family
1. Teach Nathaniel how to read by using the same book I used for David.
2. Take photo of full-family and write updates weekly (Project Weekly Diary).
3. Write daily gratitudes for me and David (Project Gratitude Journal)
4. Have a family tradition where we do something together each weekend for 1-2 hours.
5. Create gratitude-focused art with Nathaniel each week (Project Nathaniel’s Gratitude Pages)
6. Create gratitude postcards with David and mail them out (Project David’s Gratitude Postcards)
7. Volunteer in both David and Nathaniel’s schools
8. Schedule minimum bimonthly date nights with Jake
9. Tell our family stories (The Savor Project)

Health
1. Continue running daily, work your way back up to 5K a day
2. Find a way to incorporate strength exercises weekly
3. Come up with three healthy ideas for each meal and use them
4. Get minimum 7hours of sleep every night and 8 on the weekends
5. Meditate every day
6. Floss daily

Work
I don’t share much about work on my blog and I won’t here either but I promise you I have 5 specific goals for work for 2013.

Art
1. Sketch minimum three times a week (Project Weekly Sketching)
2. Art journal weekly incorporating hand-lettering (Project SixBySix and Project Gratitude PostCards)
3. Pick one of the online classes I didn’t complete and do the work
4. Experiment with at least three mediums
5. Experiment with collage/mixed media once a week (Project Gratitude Journal)
6. Continue to create for my design teams (Maya Road & My Mind’s Eye)
7. Create a new Savor Project for 2013 (The Savor Project)

Celebrating
1. Write at least three long thought/idea oriented blog posts a week
2. Make a list of 3 achievements each week for each family member and have a celebratory breakfast/lunch once a week.
3. Send one kind email to someone each week
4. Have and end-of-day ritual each night and a welcoming-the-day ritual each morning

Reading
1. Read a book a week (Project A Book a Week)
2. Read regularly to and with David
3. Teach Nathaniel to Read
4. Regularly attend both book clubs

Gratitude
1. Write down two things I am grateful for each day (Project Gratitude Journal)
2. Write daily for David (Project Gratitude Journal)
3. Create gratitude-focused art with Nathaniel each week (Project Nathaniel’s Gratitude Pages)
4. Create gratitude postcards with David and mail them out (Project David’s Gratitude Postcards)
5. Create gratitude postcards for me and mail them out (Project Gratitude PostCards)

Learning
1. Get Coaching Certification
2. Continue to coach clients
3. Take two classes locally
4. Learn to drive on the freeway – still not giving up on this one
5. Learn to ride a bike – nor this one!

Belonging (I changed this around a bit but it’s still about building community)
1. Go out to breakfast/lunch once a week with a good friend (or a potential good friend). If not possible, call/email a friend to reconnect.
2. Invite guests over for dinner at least once a month
3. Extend an invitation to someone new once a month
4. Send out gratitude cards to people whom I am grateful for

There we go. As more creep up over the year, I will likely come here and add/alter as needed.

Schedule for Blog
I’ve also come up with a tentative schedule for my blog for 2012:
Mondays : Gratitude Journal
Tuesdays : Sketching
Wednesdays : A Book a Week + Gratitude PostCards
Thursdays : The Savor Project
Fridays : SixBySix
Saturdays : Weekly Diary
Sundays : David’s Gratitude PostCards and Nathaniel’s Gratitude Pages (we will alternate this each week)

I will also aim to post self-reflection/thought posts minimum three nights a week. Likely Monday through Thursday.

Thoughts to Cultivate

For the last two years, I created major focus areas I wanted to have throughout the year. Things that I want to come back to again and again. Some of these I will repeat for this year since I still would like to keep them forefront on my mind. And others are new for this year. These will likely show up in my art journals + self-reflection but I also want to have them here for reference.

1. Let go of worry Since my goal is to be present this year, I think this is even more important than usual. My goal this year is to remember to stay in the present moment. To breathe and see if I am worrying about something in the past or future vs the now. I also plan to use The Four Questions and listen to more of Tara Brach regularly.

2. Do Less I started slowing down last year and this year I plan to do so even more. With the coaching, I now have a lot of my free hours not free. I want to make sure I am making quality time to be with family. Quality time to rest. I do not want to burn out. I plan to do less this year. And let myself off the hook whenever I need it. Better to do one piece of art each week then to do 10 and then burn out.

3. Do not yell This one is self-explanatory. I absolutely hate hearing other people yell. And yet I do it more often than I’d like. This year, it’s a non-negotiable. It will not happen. It’s not a 5-10% thing. It’s all or nothing and the goal is nothing. People I love deserve my respect. (This is word for word from both years. I wish I could say I adhered to it. But, no. Ic did have much better moments in 2012 but for 2013, I want to be even more resolute. Stronger. Kinder. Quieter. Calmer.)

4. Be mindful I want to be a lot more aware of my own feelings. Those of my kids. Aware of how my actions affect others. How I actually have time before I need to react. How I can choose what to do next. How I can choose the tone of my voice, the way I feel, the way I react.

5. Celebrate I want to focus on all the good things in my life more purposefully this year. Take scheduled time to celebrate. Celebrate those around me and myself. Spread joy. Spread kindness. Make rituals. Reach out to people and celebrate together. Life is a present. The best gift ever.

6. Cultivate Belonging I have been struggling with community for a few years now. I think working at home and juggling all that I do makes it harder for me. I’ve also cultivated some social anxiety recently, it seems. So instead of trying to cure-it-all, my plan this year is to narrow down my focus. Find the few people I care about and cultivate those friendships. Focus on establishing deeper ties. Not necessarily wider but deeper. For me and my kids. That’s my plan this year. Let’s see if it works better.

7. Self-Compassion I want to be kinder to myself. I want to cultivate awareness so I can see when I fall back into my non-productive patterns and forgive myself. I want to show my kids that we all mess up and we all deserve forgiveness. I want to be kind, kind, kind. I want to practice non-judging awareness. And, most significantly, I want to quit taking things personally.

8. Be open While I want to learn to forgive myself for not enjoying some of the things others might, I also want to continue to ty new things. I want to be willing to do something just for someone else. Be open to the possibility that I might like it. I want to be brave. I want to be an example to my kids that we practice courage regularly. It’s not inherent. I want to show that sometimes we fail but we get up and try again. I want to move away completely from anything that encourages shame-words. I want to show that failure is a part of life and so is showing compassion to oneself.

9. Gratitude And, finally, this year I plan to kick the gratitude thing up a few notches. I want do practice it myself, cultivate it in both my kids, send it out to my friends. Just make it front and center in my life. I know it’s one of the biggest links to happiness. And so easy to do.

And there we are. I am sure more will come up. But these are some of what’s on my mind.

Here’s to hoping 2013 is fantastic for all of us!

Picking a word this year was challenging. Partly cause I grew to love Savor so much that I felt strongly that I didn’t want to let it go. When I look at my list from last year, I am amused at how many of the same words were on my list this year, too. Here was the list I tinkered with for months:

• brave
• calm
• quiet
• shift
• shine
• true
• present
• now
• breathe
• celebrate
• light
• still
• listen
• open
• center
• moment
• unlock
• guide

Like last year, I resisted my word this year. Even though present kept coming up, I just didn’t like the way it sounded. I didn’t like how long it was, how many e’s it had (when you’re a scrapper, these things matter!) and it just seemed too bland.

But no matter how much I resisted it, it kept coming back to me. And after I finally decided to stop pushing back so hard, it felt completely right. It was going to be my word for 2013 and that was that.

One of the things I love about the word present is that it has multiple meanings:

• Right now: This is the first meaning of present that resonated with me. Being in the right now. Not thinking about the past or the future. One of the things I hear often in the meditation I listen to is how there’s no suffering in this moment. And how a lot of it is either about the past or the future. So if you stay in this present moment, you can reduce suffering a lot. And I’m all about reducing suffering, especially in 2013.
• Right here: The second meaning of present that really resonates with me is having presence. Being here. While I am playing with my kids, actually playing with them and not also doing email or talking on the phone. Or even thinking about anything else. I think one of the strongest ways I can show my love for them is with my attention. Actually being there for them. And doing the same for each thing I do. Being here. Paying attention. Not numbing, distracting. This is sort of like savoring but in real-time.
• The gift: The final meaning that resonated with me was the idea of life being a present. The days I get are a gift. The days I get with my family are a gift. The days I get as a healthy person. The days I get to do art. The days I get to read and write. So much of my life is such a gift. Not to be squandered, not to be taken for granted. Not a moment to waste. I love the reminder of these precious moments being a gift.

Like last year, I changed my blog banner on my site and bought myself another ring with my word on it. I am still wearing the savor one as well since I am not ready to let that word go yet.

And there we are. The year of being present.

Like last year and the year before, I also made my Priority List for 2013. Just to remind the idea behind this is:

I was listening to The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and one of the things the author mentions is managing our time and how we spend much of it doing what’s urgent instead of doing what’s important. As in, we’re often reacting instead of thinking ahead and calmly acting in the direction of our dreams and priorities.

So I decided it would beneficial for me to make a “Priority List”. A list of goals and people I want to prioritize during the year. This way, when an opportunity or request came my way, I could check my list and make sure it is aligned with my priorities before I accepted it. It’s easy to lose sight of things and take on projects that end up eating a lot of my time and not making me fulfilled. If I had my list to look at each time, I could keep what’s important at the forefront of my mind and make sure to prioritize it.

Here’s my Priority List for 2013:

• Family
• Health
• Work
• Art
• Celebrating
• Reading
• Gratitude
• Learning
• Belonging

Like last year, these are not in order. Yes, most of the time my family comes first. However, there are times when work takes higher priority because it has to for a brief time. Or sometimes I might choose to exercise even if my son wants to play at that moment. These priorities are fluid for me. They are all a part of me and I want to make sure I value them and dedicate time to each. I also want to make sure I turn down anything that doesn’t line up with one of these.

The list is similar to last year but not exactly the same. And like last time, I know you could make everything fit into one of these categories but, in my heart, I know what these mean. And I know when something comes along that doesn’t fit. Above everything, I want to stay true to my gut. I’ve made the mistake of doing something that will look good and make others think well of me before and it was a lot of heartache for me and so I want to listen to myself more and trust my gut and know that if I turn down something that feels wrong, other opportunities will still come my way and I will know when the right one is there. So I will have faith in myself and in the universe.

And I will prioritize the important.

And there we are.

Here’s to an amazing 2013: The year I will be present, in the present and remember the present it all is.

2012 was my year to savor. My goal for the year was to slow down, be grateful, mindful, and joyful. I hoped to pay attention and notice all the moments of joy and amazing abundance in my life.

When I look back now, I see that I did savor so many of our moments Even though some of this year was extra-tough for me, I still did a large amount of amazing things that were aligned with my goal to savor and especially when I think about where I am at this moment, I am filled with overflowing gratitude for my life and all the love I am surrounded by. I loved this word so much, I know it will stay with me forever.

Here are some specific goals I had in mind for this year and how they worked out:
Family
1. Read to David daily with a focus on longer, more involved books. (We will incorporate these into David’s Book of Good Memories)
This project didn’t take off as well as I would have liked. Mostly cause our mornings are quite rushed now and as Nathaniel is getting older (but not old enough to follow yet) he’s less willing to sit quietly while I read. I might turn this into a nighttime activity with just David and me for 2013.

2. Take photo of full-family and write updates weekly (Project Weekly Diary).
This project went well and we didn’t skip one single week in 2012. I definitely plan to continue it for 2013. I am loving getting to have so many photos with my family.

3. Write a weekly diary of us and daily gratitudes for me and David (Project Weekly Diary) and the gratitudes are on the left column of the blog.
I did the weekly diary but not the gratitudes. Somewhere along the line, I dropped this practice and I really miss it. I am determined to bring it back for 2013 and have a plan.

4. Continue our family night where we all play games or watch movies together (Scheduled for Sunday nights)
We sort of fell off the wagon for this one, too. We did spend a lot of time together and went out to dinner, etc. But not playing together. I do hope to rectify this in 2013, as well.

5. Create letter-focused spreads and art with Nathaniel each week (Project Letters with Nathaniel)
This one, we did. Both Nathaniel and I really enjoyed it very much.

6. Create at least one crafty spread a week with David about things that made him happy that week (Project David’s Book of Good Memories.)
I am not sure why, but David resisted this project a lot. We still managed to fill up a whole book and now he really loves looking at it, so in the end, it was a success.

7. Volunteer in both David and Nathaniel’s schools at least twice each semester. (I know this doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s the minimum I hope to do.)
In honesty, I am not sure if I did this. I definitely spent some time in both classes but not nearly as much as I would have liked.

8. Schedule minimum bimonthly date nights with Jake
We were pretty inconsistent with these. We skipped a bunch and then did a bunch in a row. All in all, We didn’t have 24 but we probably had more than a dozen.

Health (Project Healthy For Life)
1. Continue running daily, work your way up to 5K a day
Some good news and some bad news here. I ran every single day in 2012. I did manage to make it to 5K a day and did that for a while. But then I sort of fell off and went back down to 1-2miles a day. I am working my way up but it’s been hard.

2. Find a trainer so I can add basic weight-training and strength exercises weekly
Well…I found one and was actually doing exercises every day when some bad life events got in the way and so I now have exercises and need to go back to consistently doing them first.

3. Track the food I eat each day. (not fun!)
yes, well, this never happened.

4. Continue using the fitbit daily with a goal of 10,000 steps a day
This was working like a charm until my fitbit broke in the fall. Since it was its third time dying, i just gave up on it and don’t use one anymore.

5. Get minimum 7hours of sleep every night and 8 on the weekends
I am pretty good about this one. Even though I likely sleep fitfully, I do sleep at least 7 hours each night.

6. Eat at least one serving of vegetables and protein daily
Well I’ve been ok on protein thanks to the amy’s bean burritos but not so great on veggies. My diet is a mess all over the place to be honest. I don’t eat badly (well maybe except the chocolate) but I really don’t eat well either.

7. Start a meditation practice
I did a lot of work on this one. I took a 6-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course that literally changed my life. It was amazing. I also discovered Tara Brach and listened to her podcasts daily. I meditated pretty regularly until the fall and am determined to bring it back into my life. I also took a Science of Mindfulness class which was excellent. Meditation changed my life and I cannot say enough good things about it.

Art
1. Sketch minimum four times a week (Project Weekly Sketching)
done. I did a lot lot lot of sketching in 2012.

2. Art journal weekly using hand-lettering at least half the time (Project Weekly Art Journal)
this, too, i did a lot of and all of them used hand-lettering.

3. Take at least three art classes
I took a lot of classes in 2012. I listed some of them here. I actually took even more than that list.

4. Experiment with at least three mediums
hmm.. I used the Tombow watercolor markers for the first time. I used a little bit of the gelatos. But that’s mostly it. I’d like to do more experimentation in 2013 if I can.

5. Try sketching using different sizes. (Really big+really small)
not so much.

6. Focus on and hone one specific sketch style. (or two or three!)
this one, I think I did. At least one style for sketching and one for art journaling.

7. Experiment with collage once a week (Project Journey into Collage)
also did this one.

Storytelling
1. Continue to create for my design teams (Maya Road, My Mind’s Eye, Write.Click.Scrapbook)
I said good-bye to WCS sometime during 2012 but I did my commitments to all three.

2. Create at least four pages (2-spreads) in my book (The Savor Project)
done

3. Design a class around different ways of storytelling
I didn’t design any classes in 2012. I have several small ideas but I am not feeling motivated to do them for some reason. Interestingly, it looks like Ali’s going to teach a “ways of storytelling” class in 2013 and I am sure she’ll do an awesome job of it.

4. Aim to do 1-2 guest design spots or classes (that I teach) this year
I did teach one class for Debbie Hodge and one for Gossamer Blue and I have a guest spot coming up early in 2013. I also was on Paperclipping Roundtable a few times, does that count?

Reading
1. Read a book a week (Project A Book a Week)
Oh yes, and more. I think I read about 90 books this year. A lot of them are young adult and such quick reads, but still…

2. Read daily to David (longer, more involved books) (Project Reading with David)
covered this one above.

3. Regularly attend both book clubs
I did go to one book club regularly but the other one was a miss for at least half the year. Partly cause of my crazy times and partly cause they picked books I really didn’t like.

Self-Reflection
1. Write at least three long thought/idea oriented blog posts a week
I had some holes in this but I tried to do a lot more of these this year and really enjoyed them.

2. Journal five days a week
Journaling didn’t happen. Can’t decide if I want to resume this one or not.

3. Take at least two self-reflection-focused classes this year (already signed up for Body Restoration)
See above link of classes. I did at least three of these this year.

4. Do the exercises in A Minute for Me, daily
Interestingly, I didn’t do any of these. Not sure why.

Learning
1. Take two classes locally
I took MBSR and The Science of Willpower and The Science of Mindfulness.

2. Take four online classes this year
Done

3. Learn to drive on the freeway
not done 🙁 I did go on both freeways this year so it’s not a total fail but still nowhere close to where I’d like to have been by now.

4. Learn to ride a bike
no progress here.

5. Learn to collage
Up for debate. But I did do a page each week.

Community (This is a particularly hard one for me.)
1. Go out to breakfast/lunch once a week
Not sure I was so regular but I did meet with friends more than usual.

2. Invite guests over for dinner at least once a month
We did so-so on this one. Probably ten this year.

3. Extend an invitation to someone new once a week
hmm.. probably not. But A few new ones nonetheless.

4. Leave comments on blogs I read once a week
bleh. didn’t even do well finding new blogs to read.

5. Respond to comments on my blog + return emails within 48 hours
yes, ok, i really sucked on this one!

I also took four out of the five classes I needed to get my coaching certification and I signed up for the certification process (starting in February) and started seeing clients. A big dream and a large commitment for both 2012 and 2013.

And there we go. 2012 was a year of big ups and big downs. I am quite grateful to get to close it on such a positive note and I still love and adore my word, savor, and decided to keep my ring so I can still remember to cherish and savor my moments and bask in the joy and gratitude of the overflowing gifts in my life.

I am so deeply lucky.

And, with that, good-bye 2012. Thank you for your lessons and gifts.